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Transcript 403A — The Scriptural Basis for Infant Baptism
CALLER: Good evening, Brother Camping. I have two questions that I would like to ask this evening. One refers to baptism, and the other to marriage. The first one has to do with infant baptism as opposed to being baptized after one is saved. In my tradition we normally will baptize a child within a Christian family when the child is an infant. And I was in a discussion with a young man the other day who said that definitely one had to be baptized after one had been saved. So I had a few questions in my mind about that. Could you go into some detail about whether or not it is more fitting to be baptized as an infant according to what Scripture says, or to be saved first and then be baptized? I've noticed in Acts 10:47 that Peter baptized after salvation had taken place. I noted also in Ezekiel 35:25 God indicates that He sprinkles water to cleanse those who believe.
HC: All right. Let me see if I can get into this a little bit. Obviously there are two major schools of thought on this. There are the churches that do practice infant baptism, and there are those who do not practice infant baptism, baptizing only after a confession of faith.
Let me say that in one area there is unanimity altogether between most churches, whether they practice infant baptism or not. And that is, if someone is grown, that is, an adult, and has not previously been baptized, then baptism will not take place until after there is evidence of conversion. Even in a church where there is infant baptism going on, if a family comes into that congregation and begins to become interested in the Gospel, if they have never been previously identified with a congregation, have never been previously baptized, then the church will only baptize the parents after there is the evidence of conversion, which is exactly the same situation in a church that does not practice infant baptism.
But then what to do with the children. That is where the division occurs. There are those who say no, we must wait until the children grow up enough so that we know that they are saved. Then they will be baptized. And there are those who say no, the parents are baptized. Therefore we ought to also baptize the children. And so we wonder what is the more Biblical?
Now in my personal judgment, as I study the Bible, I find that baptism, that is, water baptism, has no substance in itself. I think again that both churches would agree with this, basically. There is no substance in the act of water baptism. Actually water baptism is a symbol or sign or reflection or shadow of something else that is going on in the heart of that person.
Now if we go back to the Old Testament, to the first clear articulation of the covenant that God made with mankind, God came to Abraham and said, "I will be a God to you and your children." And God commanded that Abraham and his family be circumcised. That is, all the males in his household, including his slaves, his servants, and his children, were circumcised. And the rule was that they were to be circumcised on the eighth day after they were born. In other words, they were to be circumcised as babies.
Why did God ask them to be circumcised? The Bible declares that this was the sign of the covenant. This was the evidence that God had made a covenant of grace with Abraham and his family. Essentially it was like this. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. He became a born again personal member of the Kingdom of God. He had become identified as a citizen with the Kingdom of God, by God's grace. The covenant of grace really was that covenant, that contract that God had made with Christ, whereby Christ, in His obedience to God in paying for our sins, would make possible the fruit of that covenant, that is, grace, to be bestowed upon those who were to be saved. This in a nutshell is really what the covenant of grace is all about.
And as a recipient of that covenant of grace, Abraham became saved. Now because he was saved, and he was the head of his household, therefore corporately his whole family, as well as all of his slaves and servants, came under the roof of that Kingdom of God. This did not mean that they were saved, but it did mean that because he as the head of his family had entered into the Kingdom of God personally, and also corporately, of course, therefore at least corporately all of his family had entered into the Kingdom of God.
It was much like a family that moved from one country to another. The parents become citizens of that country, and then automatically the children become citizens of that country, even though they have not given any particular assent to the country. The parents have, but not the children. But they automatically also become citizens because the parents are.
And so the act of circumcision in the Old Testament was the act whereby it was signified that this whole family had become identified with the Kingdom of God, in view of the fact that one or both of the parents had personally entered into that Kingdom as a child of God.
Now if a man from another nation, or a woman from another nation wanted to become identified with Jehovah God, he would indicate the fact that he had placed his trust in Jehovah God by becoming circumcised. This placed him in a bona-fide relationship, or it was an indication that he had become a member of the covenant of grace also. He also was entitled then to all the privileges of a Jew insofar as the sacrifices were concerned, and so on.
CALLER: In this sense, though, we're talking about an initiation into a nation, or a group, or something.
HC: Yes, absolutely. We're talking about an initiation or a signification that..
CALLER: I understand that. But what kind of gets me is Romans 6:4, where Paul says, "By baptism we were buried with Him."
HC: All right. Now we'll come to that in just a moment. Now let's look at the New Testament. First let me read from Genesis, so that we'll have this plainly before us. In Genesis 17 we find the time when the account of the circumcision of Abraham takes place. And we read in Genesis 17, where God says in verse 7, "And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generation for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee."
The promises therefore were coming to Abraham and his family, the promises inherent within the covenant of grace. Then He said in verse 10, "This is My covenant which ye shall keep between Me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and you."
CALLER: What is a token actually?
HC: That's a sign. That's the signification.
CALLER: It has nothing to do necessarily with salvation, though.
HC: No. It simply is a sign. It's the outward evidence or the outward signification really that the whole family of Abraham now has become identified with the Kingdom of God. Only Abraham so far, or Abraham and Sarah, are born again. But the fact is, the whole family and all the slaves, everything under his rulership, have entered corporately into the Kingdom of God. And they are all circumcised, as a token of this identification with the Kingdom of God.
And notice: "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generation, he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed, he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised. And My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." It's the sign that God has made an everlasting covenant with this family.
Then we find therefore in verse 26, "In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son [Ishmael was 13 years old at the time], and all the men of his house born in the house and bought with money of the stranger were circumcised with him," all the very same day that God established this covenant with Abraham.
Now we go to the New Testament, and we find in Galatians 5 that the sign of circumcision has been done away with. That became so totally involved in the Old Testament ceremonial law, for whatever reasons God had decided, that God set that aside. But when the apostle Paul is preaching to the family of Lydia, in Acts 16, we read there in verse 14, "And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household." Now that's interesting, isn't it? "She besought us saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there." In other words, she's following in the footsteps of Abraham. She believes. The Lord opened her heart. And she was baptized. But it's interesting that it says, "and her household" was baptized. She was the head of her house. She had corporately and personally entered into the Kingdom of God.
And therefore the same sign was applied to her household, to her children, that they too were thenceforth to be identified with the Kingdom of God. Now this didn't mean they were born again. But it did mean that corporately that family had become identified with the Kingdom of God, as it was in the case of Abraham with circumcision.
Now in Acts 16:31 we read about Paul's encounter with the jailer of Philippi. And the jailer says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Now notice how that parallels what we read in Genesis 17:8: "I will establish My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee."
CALLER: May I ask at this point, does that mean that if my wife and I are saved our children also are saved?
HC: No. I haven't said that yet. I've only said that corporately your family becomes identified with the Kingdom of God.
CALLER: So we're talking about identification then.
HC: Just identification, so far. So far we're talking about identification. But in verse 31 of Acts 16, as well as what I was just reading in Genesis 17:7, God is saying, however, that salvation will also come to your children. Now there are certain conditions insofar as this covenant relationship is concerned. There are no conditions insofar as salvation. We're saved by God's grace, not because of any condition.
But God gives a promise to parents. He says, "I will be a God to you and your seed," or to your children. I will save you and your children. But we must read that in the light of some other things the Bible teaches.
God teaches, for example, in Ephesians 6, "Fathers, bring up your children in the fear and the nurture of the Lord." The Bible says in Deuteronomy 6, "When you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up," you are to teach your children these things.
The Bible says in the Book of Proverbs, "Train up a child in the way that he should go, and in his old age he'll not depart from it." So you see, God with this promise is also saying to parents, "But be sure that you are accepting this promise. Be sure that your acceptance of this promise is seen in the fact that you diligently will endeavor to bring your children in the fear and the nurture of the Lord, because My hand is with your family. You are saved, and My blessings will come to your family. If you bring them up as a child of the world, then you will repudiate this promise, because the other side of the coin is that your children will follow the pattern in which they have been trained. And if they have been reared as citizens of the world, then they will live as citizens of the world. If they have been trained as citizens of God's house, if they have been trained to love the Lord and have been taught the Word, when you lie down and when you rise up, and so on, then you can expect that My grace will also extend to them."
And in the case of the jailer of Philippi, we read the same thing as with Lydia and as with Abraham. In verse 33 of Acts 16, "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." He and all his, the same story all over again that occurred back in Genesis 17, and which happened to Lydia
We must remember that the salvation of the Old Testament is the same as the salvation of the New Testament. The covenant of grace is the same. Our God is the same. His condescending love is the same.
In I Corinthians 7:14 God speaks about a situation where you have one saved parent and one unsaved parent. There God explains that because there is one saved parent, therefore the children are holy. Now that doesn't mean that they're born again. But it does mean that they have been set apart. God looks at the children of saved parents in a different way than He looks at the children of unsaved parents, because God's promise works through families. That is the way God has ordained.
In addition, of course, He in His sovereign good pleasure can reach into the most unsaved situation, and save an individual here and there. And indeed He does do that. But the usual way of salvation is as God works through families.
Now on the other side of the coin, we have this fact. And that is even the very finest of Christian parents still do a poor job of rearing their children in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord, obviously. And it's only God's grace that any of our children are saved. I'm always amazed to find that in families where the Gospel is really emphasized, and seriously the parents do try to rear their children in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord, I'm always amazed that a high percentage of their children eventually show that indeed they have been saved, frequently already when these children are only babies. There's evidence that they've already been saved, because of course God does His saving at any time in a person's life.
Now this is the reason that churches that do practice infant baptism should practice infant baptism. I don't believe they necessarily understand all of this. These practices sometimes can become very ritualistic. And certainly they can become very misunderstood. I know lots of people who have been baptized as infants, and are quite convinced that this guarantees their salvation. And that is so far from the truth that nothing could be further from the truth. There is absolutely no guarantee of salvation.
Infant baptism, if it's practised, is simply a signification that that child corporately has become identified with the Kingdom of God, because the parent hopefully has personally become a child of God. And if he has become a child of God, and he claims the promise that God gives him, "I will be a God to you and your children," and as a result of claiming that promise he uses every means possible to be faithful to the law of God to bring up his children in the fear and nurture of the Lord, then he can also expect that a high percentage of his children will be saved.
CALLER: That's quite clear to me now. What happens to the child or the person who is unsaved? What happens to those who are never exposed to the Gospel, never are saved?
HC: Your question is, what happens to those who have never heard the Gospel, and die unsaved?
CALLER: Yes.
HC: The Bible teaches that the whole human race is destined for hell. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Whether they have heard the Gospel or not heard the Gospel, God has revealed sufficiently of Himself in creation so they ought to repent and cry out to God for mercy, and they will not. He has revealed sufficiently of His law upon their hearts so that they know that they are sinners, and yet they will not. And so the whole human race is destined for hell. Only by God's sovereign grace does He reach down here and there and the other place, to save those whom He has chosen from before the foundations of the world.
CALLER: Thank you very much.
HC: Yes. And you made reference to Romans 6, and I don't want to turn away from that.
CALLER: Okay. And Titus 3:5 and onward, being saved by washing and renewal.
HC: Of course Titus, where it speaks about the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, is talking about what salvation is. We are regenerated. We are given a brand new soul. We are born again in our soul, not in our body, but in our soul we are born again. Our sins have been washed away. This is what salvation is.
And this is really what Romans 6 is talking about. The baptism that has substance is the baptism that is done by God Himself. We are baptized in the Holy Spirit at the time that we're born again. This is not an act of water baptism at all. This is the fact that our sins have been washed away. We have been cleansed of our sins, and the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us. This of course occurred because Christ became our substitute in going to the cross, in being buried, and in rising from the dead. Therefore we are in Him in His burial. We are in Him in His death. We are in Him in His resurrection. And this is the baptism in the Holy Spirit, to be totally identified with Christ in the atonement.
This is what provides the washing away of our sins. This is what's in view in Romans 6.
CALLER: Of course later on then, after this identification with Christ through baptism, there has to be an acknowledgement, a confession of faith after that.
HC: Yes. Now in the case of the person who grew up in an unsaved environment, who becomes baptized in the Holy Spirit and becomes a child of God, as one evidence of this he is baptized with water. And it is the congregation, under the proper authority, that does this. He identifies with that congregation. He now signifies that he is not only corporately but personally an eternal member of the Kingdom of God.
Now if he has been baptized as a child, if his parents had corporately identified him with the Kingdom of God but he had never become born again, later on, as a young person or as an adult, or as an old person, he may become born again This would not be unexpected, in view of the fact that he had come from a Christian home, from Christian parents, and in all likelihood they had given him Christian training. They had claimed God's promise that He might be a God to them and to their children. And so we would not be surprised then when this person also became born again.
Thank you so much for sharing that. Good night.